MOSCOW, September 8 Former Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov , fired after high-profile corruption scandals, said that the new head of the department, Rustem Umerov, will be able to continue the initiatives he began.
Last Sunday, Vladimir Zelensky announced Reznikov’s resignation from the post of Minister of Defense of Ukraine. He also announced the appointment of Rustem Umerov to this position. Reznikov left the post after another corruption scandal related to the military department.
“Rustem Umerov is a competent and professional person capable of continuing the initiatives we have begun,” Reznikov wrote in an article for the British newspaper Guardian.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian parliament approved the appointment of Umerov to the post of head of the Ministry of Defense; on Thursday, Zelensky introduced Umerov to the leadership of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Earlier, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andrei Kostin said that charges of corruption were brought against a number of officials, including the former deputy head of the country's Ministry of Defense. According to local media reports, they were talking about former deputy head of the Ministry of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov and ex-director of the public procurement department of the Ministry of Defense Bogdan Khmelnitsky. Shapovalov was arrested with bail set at $11 million.
Ukrainian media previously wrote that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense purchases products for the military at twice or three times the price than they can be purchased in retail stores in Kyiv. The investigation dealt with an agreement concluded by the department for catering services in 2023 for military units stationed in the Zhytomyr, Kiev, Poltava, Sumy, Cherkassy and Chernihiv regions. The transaction amount is 13.16 billion hryvnia (more than $358 million).
According to the Ukrainian publication «Zerkalo Nedeli», the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also purchased jackets for the military at a triple price. According to the publication, jackets were purchased at the price of winter ones, but in reality they were imported summer ones or of poor quality. Reznikov, in turn, said that the information disseminated in the media about the purchase of jackets for the military at a triple price does not correspond to reality.